Stolen (14 page)

Brighton didn’t budge. “When you talk to him, tell him to call me.”

Warning bells rang. It was clear to Lucy that there was history between Brighton and Sean. She should have seen it from the beginning, but initially she’d been thrown off balance.

Lucy trusted Sean explicitly, but she knew his past wasn’t squeaky clean. Was that what this split with RCK was all about? Did this visit by the FBI relate to Sean quitting RCK and moving to New York? Or about the job he couldn’t talk about?

Lynda escorted the two agents from her office, then returned. She closed the door. “Lucy, I don’t want to see you in any trouble, but you know that lying to a federal agent is a crime.”

“I didn’t lie. I don’t have his address.”

Lynda raised her eyebrows in surprise, but that Sean had kept Lucy in the dark didn’t surprise her. If Sean was doing something illegal, he would do everything to protect her—including not giving her his address. She hadn’t asked for it—there was no need to have it; she knew the move was temporary. But he hadn’t volunteered it, either.

“Do you know what that was about?” Lucy asked.

Lynda shook her head. “I tried to get information. I think Gannon would have told me, but Brighton is the lead. She has a bee in her bonnet, as you saw.”

“What division?”

“White-collar. I’m not going to ask what you know about it.” Lynda was trying to protect Lucy as well, but she didn’t want anyone going out on a limb for her. Lucy told Lynda the truth.

“You can ask, but I really don’t know anything.” She added, “Sean took a temporary job in New York. He said he signed a confidentiality agreement and couldn’t discuss anything he was working on. He’s been there for nearly a month. I don’t have any other details.”

“I can make some calls.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I know who to call. I should get back to the gym—”

Lynda shook her head. “Make the calls. You won’t be able to focus anyway. Paula told you this would take a while?”

It was lunchtime. “Yes, but—”

“Take whatever time you need. Find out what’s going on. But remember, Lucy—you
are
a federal agent. If you find out that a crime has been committed, you have an obligation to report it.”

In other words, be careful what questions you ask because you might not want the answers.

Lucy nodded and walked out. Her stomach was in knots. Because now everything made sense—Sean hadn’t told her anything about what he was doing in New York in order to protect her. He knew she’d be torn between her duty as a new agent and her love for him. But he wasn’t a criminal, and the way Agent Brighton spoke made it sound as if he was wanted for more than questioning.

Lucy’s love for Sean would always win out, even if he’d gotten into something illegal. She had several calls to make. Starting with Sean.

She walked across campus toward her dorm and was surprised to find Agent Brighton, without Gannon, standing at the edge of the path. Lucy couldn’t avoid her.

“You’re going to lose everything if you try to protect him,” Brighton said.

“If you want to continue this conversation, we should go back to Chief O’Neal’s office.”

“I’m trying to help you.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“You don’t know Sean Rogan like I do.”

Lucy resisted the urge to argue or question, but it was hard. Very hard. “I’m not going to talk to you without Chief O’Neal present,” she said.

“Then
listen
to me.”

Brighton stepped forward and stood only inches from Lucy’s face. “I know everything about you,” Brighton said in a low voice. “I’ve read files you think are buried. And it would benefit you greatly if you help rather than hinder my investigation.”

Lucy drew in a sharp breath, her heart racing, her skin heating. “Are you threatening me?” Her voice cracked, but she didn’t break eye contact.

“Maybe you don’t know your boyfriend as well as you thought.” Brighton shoved a large manila envelope into Lucy’s hands, turned, and walked away.

Lucy was shaking as she strode to her dorm room, the thin envelope clutched in her grasp.

She wasn’t shaking with fear but an anger she hadn’t felt for a long, long time. Deanna Brighton was a bully with a badge. Whether Sean had done anything specifically to get under her skin was one thing, but Lucy didn’t care what it was. Not anymore. Brighton had taken a big, fat overstep and was definitely screwing with the wrong rookie.

Lucy sat at her desk and stared at the envelope.

Don’t open it.

She trusted Sean. More than anyone, more than even her family. Sean had loved and supported her like her family always had, but he’d also been honest and given her back laughter, when she thought it was gone from her life forever.

She’d never thought she’d truly recover from the brutal rape seven years ago. But she did. She survived and regained her will to live; she created new dreams, including to become an FBI agent and fight people like the man who’d hurt her so deeply. She had a focus, but on her steadfast path she never thought she’d learn to relax, or have fun, or have any semblance of a normal life. As long as she had purpose, she would be okay.

But until Sean, she had never been
okay.
Sean gave her
normal.
As normal as people like her could be. He made her smile. He gave her back the peace in her heart she’d thought had been destroyed forever. She’d survived on her own but built a hard shell around her. She’d never realized, until Sean, that she despised herself, as if all that mattered was what she did, not who she was. With Sean, she had begun to like herself again. To be proud of her accomplishments. He gave her hope. He gave her back her soul.

And Deanna Brighton wanted to take it away.

If Sean was in trouble, Lucy would help him. If Sean had overstepped a legal line after his fight with Duke, Lucy would make it right. She wasn’t going to lose Sean. She was going to fix whatever had gone wrong. Sean never asked for help, but he was going to get it this time.

And ignorance wasn’t going to help him.

She opened the envelope. Inside was a solitary photograph.

Sean stood with a beautiful blond woman Lucy had never seen before. They stood in a park, the woman touching his face as if she was going to kiss him.

Lucy’s heart sank even as she told herself there was a logical explanation.

There had to be.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Lucy let herself into Sean’s house, which doubled as RCK East headquarters. She couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling that she was being sneaky. Sean was larger-than-life in so many ways, filling the room with his charm and ego. But even though he had an ego, it was tempered with compassion and a hidden desire to be needed.

Lucy had already talked to Patrick and knew he was out of town. That made her feel doubly guilty for what she was doing, because she hadn’t said anything to her brother. Until she had more information, she couldn’t confide in anyone.

She walked upstairs to Sean’s office and booted up his computer. Her heart pounded even though Sean had told her over and over that his house was her house, and he’d given her his security codes. But she still felt like she was doing something behind his back.

The door, which she’d thought she closed, opened. She jumped, but no one was there. She leaned forward and saw Chip, the cat she’d adopted but Sean had been taking care of while she was at Quantico. Chip jumped on Sean’s desk and meowed. Lucy petted the cat and squeezed back tears. Why was she about to cry? She didn’t know what was going on; why assume the worst?

Before she left Quantico, she’d tried calling Sean, but he hadn’t returned her call. She didn’t want to talk to anyone else before speaking with him, but the waiting was making her crazy. She needed to find out what the FBI was investigating related to Sean, but she didn’t want to send up any red flags. That wasn’t going to be easy.

Sean kept his office tidy. His desk was bare, save for things he obviously valued. A glass apple paperweight that Lucy didn’t know the significance of and wished she’d asked him. A photo of him and his parents when he was twelve, two years before they were killed in a plane crash. A small stuffed teddy bear Lucy had given him when they flew commercial back from Albany in May, after his plane had been shot down. He’d been whining about not having his Cessna, and she gave him the bear wearing a New York T-shirt. It had had a lollipop in its hands, but he’d eaten that.

And there was a picture of him and Lucy.

She picked it up, remembering when it had been taken. They’d been on one of their ill-fated vacations, this one to Massachusetts Bay. But this was before all hell broke loose, when they’d first arrived and were eating lunch overlooking the water. He’d said, “Smile, princess,” and held up his phone to take their picture. She’d laughed, thinking they looked silly, and he took several more. But this was the first.

She loved him. It was as simple as that.

She scanned the photo of the blonde into Sean’s computer and ran facial recognition software. It was something Duke had developed for RCK and licensed to private companies that needed tight security. She didn’t know how long the program would take.

She checked her phone for messages and found one from Duke. He’d called earlier, but she hadn’t wanted to talk to him before talking to Sean. Now she realized Duke might have information about Sean that would help her figure out what was going on.

Duke immediately took her call. “Lucy, thank you for returning my call.”

“An agent from the New York FBI office just came by to ask me about Sean,” Lucy said.

“Agent Brighton. She called me this morning,” Duke said.

“Do you know what’s going on? I couldn’t get any information from her, except that she wanted to question Sean about a pending investigation.”

“I don’t know, but I will find out.”

Duke sounded angry.

“She’s a piece of work,” Lucy said.

“Sean had better watch himself. You need to tell him to get his act together and stop whatever he’s doing before I can’t help him.”

“Why do you assume this is his fault?”

“You’re an FBI agent. You know how they operate. And Sean has always skirted the law. I told him I couldn’t bail him out anymore, that he has to live with the consequences of his actions. The stunt he pulled last month was the final straw for everyone here. I don’t know what mess he’s gotten himself into—”

“I don’t think either of us knows the entire story.” Lucy was stunned at Duke’s reaction. Though why should she be? She’d heard the fight between Sean and Duke. They’d both said things that were cutting, and there was also a long family history that she didn’t completely understand. She tried to change the subject. “I don’t like Agent Brighton.”

“For what it’s worth, I think it’s personal with her. There’s a history.”

“I thought so.”

“Lucy, I care about you. So does everyone here at RCK. Your brothers are key assets for us. They would tell you the same thing: Don’t put your career in jeopardy over this. You don’t know Colton Thayer and who Sean was ten years ago when they were friends.”

Lucy didn’t know what to say. Duke was Sean’s brother, and it was like he was abandoning him. “I don’t think you can judge anything until we know what Agent Brighton is investigating.” She hesitated, then said, “Duke, she’s been researching my past.”

“How do you know?” His voice was soft and concerned.

“Something she said. She was trying to intimidate me.”

Duke didn’t say anything for a moment.

“Duke?”

“You need to talk to Sean about Deanna Brighton.”

“Were they … involved?” She couldn’t imagine that; Brighton was at least ten years older than Sean.

“No. Nothing like that. It goes back to Stanford.”

“The pedophile professor.”

“Brighton was the FBI agent who arrested him.”

Now it made sense. Brighton’s animosity and anger. Her vengeance.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Duke continued. “She was over-the-top, but Sean was—well, his usual self, with far less self-control. I suspect she’s been after him for a long time, and if he’s really back in the same game with Colton Thayer, this time she’ll get him.”

“I don’t believe Sean is doing anything wrong.”

“Love is blinding you, Lucy.”

“I think your anger at Sean quitting is blinding you.”

“Do you know why he quit?” Before Lucy could respond, Duke said, “He flat-out broke the law. He hacked into a private company and extracted information for Colton Thayer. They are up to something, and I can guarantee you it’s not legal. I hope you can convince Sean to walk away before he gets into a jam he can’t charm his way out of.”

Lucy hung up because talking to Duke was upsetting her. She considered calling Noah, but he’d told her last time she talked to him that he was working on a complex case and to only call if there was an emergency. She thought of Hans Vigo, except he was on medical leave, recovering from a brutal attack nearly two months ago.